Etymologically
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furia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfʊ.ri.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfuː.ri.a][1]

Forms

furia f (genitive furiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin furō (“to rage”) + -ia.[1][2][3] The origin of furō is unknown: many etymologies have been proposed, but none is clearly better than the others.[2] Isidore of Seville explained the name of the Furies from feriō (“to strike”), because they strike the mind with goads.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly used in the plural.[7] The Furiae are the avenging goddesses, the Furies, and Cicero says that a man's own evil thoughts and conscience torment him like Furies.[3][7] As a common noun it is the madness of infatuation, as Virgil's “frenzy of Ajax son of Oileus”, avenging rage, as in Cicero's “the fury of the dead man”, and mad craving or lust, as in Virgil's animals that rush into passion and fire.[3][7] Applied to a person it is a fiend, a tormenting spirit: Cicero calls Clodius the firebrand and fury of his country.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “fury, rage”.[8]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the Furies and of Clodius as a fury of his country.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the frenzy of Ajax and of passionate desire.[3][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville derives the name from striking the mind.[4][5][6]
  • late 14th century – Its descendant enters English as fury, through Old French.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly in the plural) The goddesses of vengeance, the Furies.[3][7]
  2. Frenzy, madness; avenging rage; passionate desire, mad craving.[3][7][1]
  3. A person who torments others, a fiend, a fury.[3][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com